1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power supply controller, and more particularly relates to a power supply controller which can appropriately control the power supply of the electrical machinery or apparatus when another equipment is connected to the electrical machinery or apparatus to be controlled.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a controller which controls the power supply of the electrical machinery or apparatus (hereinafter referred to just as electrical apparatus) is provided. Some controllers automatically turn on or off the power supply of the electrical apparatus at a prescribed timing. Generally such controllers automatically turn on or off the power supply when a preset time has arrived. On the other hand, some controllers turn off the power supply when no manipulation of the electrical apparatus or operation according to the manipulation is carried out for a prescribed period. The latter controllers are particularly applied to an image formation apparatus such as a copying machine.
On the other hand, a vendor is provided which is connected to the electrical apparatus and used. The vendor allows the use of the electrical apparatus according to the value entered in itself. Generally a coin or prepaid card is used as the value entered in the vendor.
If the controller automatically turning on or off the power supply of the electrical apparatus and the vendor are simultaneously applied to the electrical apparatus, the problems described in the following (1) and (2) occur.
(1) When the vendor is connected to the electrical apparatus, if the controller turns off the power supply of the electrical apparatus, the user needs to turn on the supply of the apparatus again.
(2) When the power is supplied from the electrical apparatus to the vendor, if the power supply of the electrical apparatus is turned off, the power supply of the vendor is also turned off. A trouble which occurs in this case is that even if there is any balance of the value entered in the vendor, the balance becomes ineffective.
The present invention is made to solve the problems described above. An object of the invention is to improve ease of use of a controller for the power supply of an electrical apparatus to be controlled.
Another object of the invention is to effectively control the electrical apparatus to which a vendor is connected.
According to one aspect of the invention, a controller which controls the power supply of an electrical apparatus determines whether another apparatus is connected to the electrical apparatus, and changes details of the control of the power supply according to the result of the determination.
According to another aspect of the invention, a controller, which controls the power supply of an electrical apparatus to which a vendor allowing the use of the electrical apparatus according to an entered value is connected, determines whether there is any balance of the value entered in the vendor, and changes details of the control of the power supply according to the result of the determination.
According to still another aspect of the invention, a controller, which controls the power supply of an electrical apparatus to which a vendor allowing the use of the electrical apparatus according to an entered value is connected, determines whether any value is entered in the vendor, and changes details of the control of the power supply according to the result of the determination.
According to still another aspect of the invention, an image formation apparatus having an automatic power-off function which allows the power supply to be automatically turned off at a prescribed timing includes: a determination circuit which determines whether a vendor allowing the use of the image formation apparatus according to a value entered in the image formation apparatus is connected or not; and a control circuit which inhibits the power supply from being turned off by the automatic power-off function if the determination circuit determines that a vendor is connected to the image formation apparatus.
According to still another aspect of the invention, an image formation apparatus to which a vendor allowing the use of the image formation apparatus according to an entered value and which has the automatic power-off function which allows the power supply to be automatically turned off at a prescribed timing includes: a determination circuit which determines whether there is any balance of the value entered in the vendor; and a control circuit which inhibits the power supply from being turned off by the automatic power-off function if the determination circuit determines there is any balance in the vendor.
According to still another aspect of the invention, an image formation apparatus to which a vendor allowing the use of the image formation apparatus according to an entered value is connected and which has the automatic power-off function which allows the power supply to be automatically turned off at a prescribed timing includes: a determination circuit which determines whether any value is entered in the vendor and a control circuit which allows the power supply of the image formation apparatus to be turned on if the determination circuit determines that some value is entered in the vendor.